X-23 Too Dead to Live
by Crazy Addi
Summary: X-23 struggles with coping with her immoral past, joins Xavier's Institute, and puts everyone there in danger. The facility that created her is on her tail, and Laura is conflicted whether she should just give in to the thing that has been by her side since the beginning. Death. (Violence)
1. Chapter 1

X-23; Too Dead to Live

It was as if I had lost the will to breath. All the years of abuse and mistakes taking a hold of me and squeezing the desperation for life, that everyone is cursed with, from my being. His hands were not the ones killing me. They were my own.

As I lie among shattered stone I looked back at the slaughterhouse that my life had become. The friends I'd killed. The love I'd slaughtered. The innocence that had died beneath the metal of my claws.

I'd give you my name if I knew for sure what it was. I go by many things. Animal. Thing. Monster. Mutant. X-23. Laura. Clone.

Feel free to take your pick like the others have. I have no opinion that could possibly be kept in mind. Don't hesitate to pretend that you know who I am.

Anyway, allow me to adjust my chatter into something cohesive for you to understand. After all I was created to serve.

First, a little back-story. I shall not go into the gore and crudeness of detail now, but instead I will divulge this; I am a female clone of Wolverine. I was created in a lab for one purpose. To kill and to serve. I escaped from the lab that created, abused, and used me. (Pardon the rhyme). Later in my life, they invented a trigger scent, an odor undetectable by normal people, and enraging to me. I would destroy anything that reeked of it.

That is all you need to know now, and thus I shall continue on with my tale. You may read it to your young if you wish. Go on. Try to explain to them the confusion of a girl who shouldn't even exist.

Allow me to recount from the beginning.

Upon my battle with Wolverine and then capture by Captain America, I fell once again into the use of another party outside myself. The X-men.

How I fell into their hands, I chalk up to my own foolishness. I came to them, seeking refuge. Normally I do not resort to assistance from other people; I loathe the very idea of it. However, I needed a safe haven to protect me from the facility that created me. They wanted me back, and I could not allow myself to become a tool of theirs once again.

I came to the Xavier's Institute in a grave condition beyond physicality. I fell upon their doorstep in a stupor of grief. The only person who had shown me love in my life, a mother figure, had been murdered. The killer was not me. At least it wasn't the part I want to be. Consider the girl responsible as my alter ego, brought about by the trigger scent rubbed upon my mother's clothes. In other words, I refuse to accept myself as the same person as my mother's killer. However, I must inform you of this and remind myself that I am not a hero and I will never be one.

It took the x-men's most advanced telepath to reach me, Emma Frost. Though she is my consciousness' savior, she continues to be the bane of my existence, taunting me with horrendous scenes of my past.

After two days of telepathic probing, I awoke from my catatonic state in a holding cell. I could hear arguing beyond the fluctuating electrical currents that made of the cell walls. I recognized wolverine's voice, and saw a flash of the moment I almost killed him. An act I had been trained from birth to commit. He was arguing in my favor, while Emma Frost and Scott Summers asserted the opposite.

"She's just a kid, Summers" Wolverine growled, and the scent of adrenaline emanating from him suggested an aggressive position he held his body in.

"On the surface, yes, she is a child." I could imagine Emma Frost pursing her lips. "But I've been in her head, and she certainly is not a child."

"She's too dangerous to be here." Cyclopes said.

"She needs help!" Wolverine yelled. "Charles would have helped her."

"Get your head straight, Logan. The girl killed her mother." Emma said, and then paused as if listening to the unknown whispers of the universe. I realized she knew I was awake as she continued. "She is a monster, and no matter how hard she tries she can never undo what she has done." I recoiled; she said it as if speaking directly to me.

I immediately closed off my mind as to not reveal the turmoil within. I would not give her the satisfaction. I shook my head, wondering what I had been thinking when I came to the institute's doorstep. This had been a mistake.

I stood and paced around the cell, already noticing the faults in it. One fault, the most obvious to me, was the exposed spout where the electricity was coming from. I unsheathed my claws, and plunged one of them into the origin of the electrical current. A minor ripple of wreckage blew me back slightly as a portion of the cell wall dispersed into the air. I kneeled for a moment, awaiting my healing factor to restart my heart and heal the burns on my body. The break in the current of the wall allowed me to slip in between and slither out. I came to a hall just outside the electrical cube that had imprisoned me, and closed my eyes, sniffing the air to find the smell of the outside. I must have been far underground, for I only found the scent of industrial walls.

I bolted through the halls, picking up trails of people who had since come and gone. I chose one and followed it to an elevator. After the rising room engulfed me, I dethatched a ceiling panel, and pulled myself atop of the elevator. A lifetime of training had taught me never to use an elevator in an enemy fortress. That sort of knowledge was common sense to me.

I replaced the panel and stood from my crouch. The elevator was coming to a halt, which meant the x-men now knew I was free. I retracted my claws and leapt from the top of the elevator and grabbed onto the many cables and pulleys attached to the elevator shaft. My arms pulled me up at a decent pace, and I emerged from the dark shaft through a hole I made in the wall with my claws.

I tumbled out and sprinted blindly through various doors until I came upon a crowd of other mutants. I halted, eyeing the crowd who had stopped to scrutinize the girl with electrical burns on her clothing. Whoops. Wrong turn.

In an attempt to blend in I walked forward, causally heading for the window across the room. People were still watching me and I tried to bat away their gazes with a glare.

"Kid, wait." I heard Logan say behind me. At this point I walked faster and slipped easily through the maze of people, while he simply pushed them out of the way. I looked back and saw Cyclopes alongside him. But where was Emma Frost? I failed to assess the importance of her absence, until I stood upon a lunch table near the window, ignoring the protests of the children who resided there. I unsheathed my claws, and all who lay their eyes upon me gasped.

"Now now," I heard a voice in my head, understanding the significance of Emma's absence. "There will be none of that." I felt a pain in my head so excruciating that I fell to my knees upon the table, blood slithering from my nose as I fought to stay awake.

I growled searching the room for Emma Frost, however she remained hidden. I held the side of my head, the point of my claws digging into my face. Logan reached me, and grabbed my shoulder. "Alright, Frost. Cut it out. I've got her."

She didn't stop until I collapsed. The last thing I heard was Logan shouting at her to stop.

**(More coming soon)**


	2. Chapter 2

"Wake up." An icy female voice cooed in my head, luring my consciousness from its dark corner and into awareness.

I did as I was told, which was what I was bred to do. My eyelids split, and unveiled my irises, allowing the light coming from the window to thrust itself at my dilated pupils.

"Good girl." Emma Frost taunted. Her arms were crossed over her white crop top, and I wondered what purpose dressing skimpy served. "It has its advantages." Frost answered with a snarky smile.

I opened my mouth to react, however I could not move my lips or any other part of my body. All I could do was blink.

"Relax. I've just locked you out of your motor functions."

Since I could not speak, I allowed my mind to speak for me. _I did not come here with violent intentions._

"Of course not. I'd know if you did."

_Yet you treat me like a prisoner. Why?_

"Here's the funny thing about people, X. They don't know their own motives, and therefore _I _don't know their motives. The fact is, you could wake up one day and suddenly decide to kill twelve students and I wouldn't know until the moment you decided. And by the time _I _know, it's already too late."

_I wish to speak with Logan._

"Well he's not here." She sneered, and peered through the window of what I could see was her office. "The thing is, we both know Logan overlooks your—"she paused, "murderous ways. But I refuse to. You are a danger to everyone you're in contact with."

_I'd greatly appreciate a condensed version of the point you are trying to convey._

"Alright then," she hissed, "I want you gone, X."

The doors opened as I was about to decide, and Logan came storming in, Cyclopes trailing behind. "What's wrong with her?" Wolverine cradled my head as it lulled limply in her arms.

"Nothing." Emma released her hold of me, and I sat up, gasping in my newly free state. Logan growled, and extended his claws towards Frost.

"Touch her again and you'll have a gaping hole in your throat." He snarled.

"Logan!" Cyclopes grabbed his shoulder. "Emma didn't do anything wrong." He looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded.

"Logan." I murmured. "She did nothing." He retracted his claws.

"I don't want her here, Scott." Emma said curtly. "She is a danger to the students."

"She's no more a danger than you are, Frost." Logan said, crossing his arms and coming to stand behind me. "She stays or I leave."

Cyclopes sighed, "you both make good points. I'm going to have to side with Logan here, though." Logan smirked, "_but_, if she steps out of line you better believe she'll be out of here."

"She won't." Logan said, taking my arm and leading me from the room. "Now," he thrust me from him and I drifted into the back lawn, "play nice while I go get your dorm sorted out." He patted me on the shoulder and that was it, I was left drowning in a sea of staring children. At least they _seemed_ like children. I suppose I had been spending too much time around adults, and thus kids my age seemed younger and more innocent.

_Play nice._ I reminded myself. It was my new mission. I wandered the lot, gliding through crowds of antsy children until I neared the shade of a tree. I knelt underneath its shadow, peering out onto the lake.

"Watch out!" I heard behind me. Just in time I turned and my eyes beheld a soccer ball bulleting towards my head. My claws came out and, without thinking, I slashed the ball to bits and assumed a defendable position.

When my vision cleared of combative analysis, I beheld the gaze of an open-mouthed young man standing before me. I stiffened.

"Could you, uh," he gestured to the shredded ball stuck through my blades.

"Ah yes." I murmured. "You want this." I whipped my arm out and the rubber ball flew from its skewers. The shredded bubble of rubber tumbled in the air, barreling towards the boy at a greater rate than I had intended it to. The boy didn't even flinch as the ball came to a halt in very close proximity to his face.

Ah he was a telekinetic.

"Oh great, Julian, what did you do to the ball this time?" A metallic object appeared, and it took a moment for me to register that it was a person. A girl. She stopped, looking down at my claws. "Uh hi!"

"Hello." I said. We stood in silence for a moment, which I was perfectly fine with. I was born on a foundation of silence. I basked in it, while others, they feared it.

"You're new." The girl laughed nervously, I nodded. "I'm Mercury. At least that's what people call me."

"My name is—" I hesitated, unsure of the fact myself.

"Oh man, the new girl ruined the game!" A girl with pink hair and pixie wings floated nearer. The mutants, wondering what had happened to their precious soccer ball, were surrounding me now. All I could hear were things like "look at her claws!"And, "Dumb new girl."

"I changed my stance to something more combative, ready to fight off the crowd."

"You're just like Wolverine!" I heard someone shout from somewhere in the mob.

"Maybe she's his daughter." Someone else speculated and another said; "probably an illegitimate daughter."

Not knowing what to say I replied, "I am a female clone of Wolverine."

The boy, Julian, raised an eyebrow and scrutinized me. "Oh yeah. You're the one from the cafeteria." He said, stepping back. "The one Miss Frost took down." He smirked.

"Dude, that was you?!" I heard from nowhere in particular, and I felt as if I were shrinking among the yelling crowd of those who were desperate to be heard above the others.

"Clear it out guys." I heard a feminine voice call through the crowd. A woman walking _literally_ through the crowd gabbed my arm, and phased me through rowdy individuals, pulling me from the lawn and through the back wall of the school. "Don't mind them. They're just stupid." She snickered. "I'm Kitty." She gave a wave, and a cheeky grin, pulling me even farther into the school, through walls and ceilings and floors. "Let's see, Logan said it was upstairs."

"What is upstairs?" I asked distrustfully.

"Don't worry- Laura is it?" She didn't wait for an affirmation. "Yeah don't worry. I'm just taking you to your room."

"Oh."

"213B, that's it!" She shouted, propelling us through the door and into a half decorated room. There was another bed, bathed in blue sheets and fluffed pillows. I was dismayed to uncover that I had a roommate. "Sweet digs, man." She laughed, "oh!" she reached in her pocket and handed me a key. "Almost forgot to give you this."

"Thank you."

"No problem." She winked, "if you ever need me to give any detention out, let me know."

"You are a teacher?"

"Yep. Don't ask me how they talked me into it, 'cause I haven't the faintest idea." She waved and then disappeared through the floor, and I stood, as I always have and always would, a lone figure in the shadows.


End file.
